Hamas captured Fatah's main Gaza base on Thursday, expanding its control over the territory. Hamas gunmen broke through into the compound in the Tal al-Hawa neighbourhood in Gaza City and hoisted the green flag of the movement on the roof after an hours-long battle that left at least 14 dead and 88 wounded, witnesses said.
Dozens of Fatah fighters, some of them stripped to their underwear, were escorted out of the building with their hands in the air as black-clad masked Hamas gunmen stood watch, they said, according to AFP. Witnesses added the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and killed them in the street. Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot to death in the street outside Preventive Security.
"We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return, " Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas' armed wing, told Hamas radio. "The era of justice and Islamic rule has arrived."
Sami Abu Zuhri, a Hamas spokesman, heralded what he called "Gaza's second liberation," after Israel's 2005 evacuation of the coastal strip.
Hamas had earlier given Fatah fighters an ultimatum to surrender their weapons by 1600 GMT on Friday, or be considered wanted men.
Meanwhile, President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, for the first time in five days of fierce fighting, ordered his elite presidential guard to strike back. Abbas was meeting in the West Bank town of Ramallah with the decision-making bodies of Fatah and the Palestine Liberation Organization. One aide, according to the AP, said Abbas was considering pulling Fatah out of its governing coalition with Hamas.
The intelligence service compound also was under siege, as Hamas fired dozens of rocket-propelled grenades in its direction. Hamas said it was on the verge of taking over the building. But the director of the intelligence service in Gaza, Mohammed al-Masri, said in a text message that the compound was still in Fatah hands.
Elsewhere in Gaza, clashes broke out at three Fatah-allied villages near the southern town of Khan Younis, but Hamas encountered little resistance as it took over security positions and homes belonging to pro-Fatah officers.
In the West Bank, Israeli soldiers Thursday killed a Palestinian activist during a thrust in Qaliqiya, medical sources said. According to the sources, Israeli troops which entered the city opened fire, killing a man and arrested others. Later, an Israeli tank shell struck a group of siblings near the southern Gaza Strip town of Rafah on Thursday, Hamas security officials said. Hospital workers said five children, all under 16, were killed.
According to the AP, they identified the children as members of the Abu Matrok family. Hamas security officials said they were from the Bedouin community of Showka, east of Rafah.
